Charlie Kirk: Record Turning Point USA $80 million raised is just a start

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Nobody’s laughing now. “It is a full-force machine,” said Kirk.

For proof, Kirk pointed to the hundreds of thousands of volunteers who help out with hundreds of local political events, the group’s expansion into faith, colleges, and high schools, its chartering of schools, and effort to help the “Blexit” movement.

He also cited Turning Point’s record of hosting activist super-conventions like the upcoming Turning Point Action Convention in Florida featuring former President Donald Trump and the first live appearance of former Fox host Tucker Carlson, maybe the biggest “get” of the year.

“It’s going to be kind of like the Lollapalooza for activism,” Kirk told Secrets of the event hosted by Turning Point Action, the political arm of Turning Point USA.

Then there is the money. While other activist nonprofit groups languished during the three years of COVID-19, Kirk and his team traveled nonstop, over 300 days a year, and built out the organization, attracting not just supporters but over 250,000 donors and legions of listeners to his Charlie Kirk Show.

It paid off. Tax documents reviewed by Secrets show that Turning Point USA brought in over $80 million last year, up from $55 million in 2022, a 46% increase. It also grew its endowment from $42 million to $50 million.

“Yeah, revenues are up 46, 47%, but we’re doing multitudes more than we’ve ever done. More programming, more events, more students trained, more chapters at high school and college campuses, and more impact,” said Kirk.

He also said that while some other activist and training organizations pulled their punches during COVID and after the 2020 election, he grew louder in his fight against wokeism and efforts to sideline conservatives. He also stepped up his war on liberal colleges and the college “scam,” and continued to out lefty professors.

Despite an avalanche of liberal criticism, he has endorsed Trump and reiterated his defense of the president against political prosecutors while going all in on calls to unload the law on President Joe Biden and his son Hunter in an alleged bribery scheme.

“There will be people that don’t have the stomach for some of this stuff, that wished we still lived in the 1980s where you had happy talk and you played patty-cakes with the other side. But what we are seeing is the American people and yes, donors, have a massive hunger and appetite for courage right now. And that’s significant,” said Kirk.

New this year is Turning Point USA’s efforts to boost early voting and build on the growing and unexpected trend of younger voters choosing conservatives, a surprise noted in a Gallup poll last week that many conservative leaders give Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action credit for.

“We’re more focused on our vision. What we’ve been able to do ideologically and educationally with our millennial project has been a huge success,” said Kirk.

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But at 11 years old, Kirk said his campaign is just beginning.

“Boy do we have our work cut out for us with Generation Z. Because they are not ideologically where we want them to be. So we have work to do. We’ve got more training, more events, more leaders to raise, more videos, so we’re motivated. We’re not resting on our laurels and saying, ‘Wow, the job is done.’ We are able to say we made a difference. We moved the dial, our 11 years were not in vain. But now we’re more motivated than ever before,” he said.